Our Alternate Life
by Confessed4Life
Summary: AU: For a celebration at The Confessor's Palace, Richard returns from Hartland with his wife, only to rediscover what he had left behind.


"The Seeker and his wife have arrived." Kahlan turned around, forcing a small smile as she nodded to her sister. "You're not coming out to see them are you?"

"I can't." She whispered, trying to fight the tears that collected in her eyes.

Stepping closer, Dennee took her hands, "You told him to marry her."

"I know, but I-"

"Hoped that he wouldn't?" She asked with a knowing smile. "Kahlan, you've moved on as well. You've taken a mate."

"I did what I had to, for the council, for our people. I can't go out there. Tell him that I'm not here."

"He's going to know that you are. He always knows."

Walking over to her bed, she pulled back the blankets and crawled in. "I can't see him. Not yet."

Nodding, Dennee turned and walked to the door. "Alright, but you can't hide from him forever."

Closing the bedroom door quietly, Richard stepped into the room, looking around for the woman he loved. Tip-toeing to the window, he lifted the chair into his arms and carried it to the side of the bed, laying it down silently. Sitting beside her, he leaned back in the chair, keeping his eyes on her. It had been months since he had seen her and as he stared, he realized that she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. His heart pounded at the sight of her, his body aching to have her in his arms.

His mind began to wonder what she had gone through the past few months. He had heard that she had at last taken a mate, but he knew it was only because the council had ordered her to. Angry at the thought of another man touching her, he reached up, rubbing his hands over his face as he sighed. Who was he to be angry? She had not married anyone. He had and he hated himself for it. Each night with his wife, he had found himself thinking of Kahlan.

Fighting the urge to reach out and touch her, Richard leaned forward, finding it enough to be closer to her, though he knew he could never be close enough. His eyes roamed over her face, seeing the pain and sadness on her face, even as she slept. The darkness under her eyes told him that she, like him, hadn't had a good nights sleep in so long. Lowering his eyes, they fell to her chest, watching as it rose and fell with each breath. His longing to touch her grew out of control.

Reaching out, he ran his fingers through some of her hair, hoping that the small contact wouldn't wake her. The subtle turn of her head caused him to pull his hand back and lay it on his lap as he leaned back in the chair, doing his best to keep from reaching out to her once again.

Opening her eyes, she jumped at the sight of him sitting in a chair beside the bed. Pulling the blanket up over herself, Kahlan sat up but continued to stare at the bed instead of him.

"Kahlan-"

"You should go." She said softly as she closed her eyes. "She'll be looking for you."

Shaking his head, he sighed. "I'm not leaving until you talk to me."

"What do you want me to say?" She looked over to him, beat.

"Anything!" He half shouted, throwing his hands up into the air. "Say anything. I can't-"

Surprising him, she rushed close to him, grabbed his face and pushed her lips against his, pulling him to her. He left the chair willingly, continuing to kiss her as he moved to the edge of the bed. Their kiss was full of passion, their tongues fighting for the domain in the other's mouth as their hands gripped at each other's clothes. Suddenly pushing him away, Kahlan reached up and wiped her mouth, mumbling something that he was sure he had never heard her say before.

"You have to go."

"No, Kahlan I-"

Turning towards him, she pressed her hands to his shoulders and pushed, knocking him onto the floor beside the bed. "You have to go. Get out!" She had never once raised her voice to him, but the urges that filled her, the longing for him, made her weak and she knew if he stayed, she would regret it. "Please," she whispered through tears "Please, just go. Go back to your wife- to your home."

Looking up at her from the floor, he sighed and crossed his legs before him. "She's not my home."

"She's you're wife."

"Kahlan, I only married her because you told me to. You told me that you and I would never happen, that I shouldn't love you- So I married her. I married her, because I thought it would make me love you less, but it didn't. Kahlan, you're all I think about. When I'm with her, I think of you. I think about what it would be and how much better it would all be if I was with you. If I was making love with you."

She turned her head away, she couldn't look at him now, not after that. Her heart pounded in passion, in fury and in jealousy. "Please go."

"You can't tell me that you don't do the same." He whispered as he moved to his knees, resting his arms on the side of the bed. "When you're with him. You don't think about him. You wonder what it's like because you want to be with me. You would rather be with me, with someone who loves you, who wants to come home every night and make love to you and not because you order him to. Be with me. Be with me now."

"How can you say that? Even if my magic wouldn't destroy you, your wife is down the hall!" Her eyes were red, filled with tears as she turned back to him. "Your wife."

"I don't love her."

"You married her!"

He nodded, licking his lips as he tried to find the words to explain. "I married her. I did and Kahlan, not a day goes by that I don't regret it."

Tightening her hold on the blankets, Kahlan took a deep breath, finding her Confessor's face to hide the pain. "Go to her. Be with her. Please."

"No." He replied the moment she finished. "I don't want to be with her. I want to be with you," he moved, coming to sit onto the bed beside her. "to be naked in your arms and kiss you the way I've wanted to and bring you the pleasures you long for. I want to make love to you, hear my name from your lips and feel you surrounding me."

Her body moved without thought, pulling him onto her as she fell back onto the pillows. Within moments, his shirt was thrown across the room and he pulled at her dress, ripping it free of her body before dropping his pants to the floor. Kissing over her chest frantically, Richard ran his hands over her body, teasing her breasts before taking them gently into his palms. Reaching up, she held his hands to her, aching her back up off of the bed as he began kissing his way down her stomach. The moans that escaped her throat were the best sounds that he had ever heard.

The feel of him above her, in her, was better than she had imagined and she never wanted it to end. Wrapping her legs around him, she roughly pulled him to her, letting out a loud groan of pleasure. Biting her lip, she tried to muffle her own moans as he continued exploring her body with his tongue and lips. His tongue sliding over her flesh made her body quiver beneath him and dig her nails into the back of his neck.

Returning his lips to hers, Richard moaned at the passion of their kiss. Their bodies moved together, bringing them higher with each kiss, touch and thrust. She closed her eyes, trying to hold back the magic rising within her. Pressing his forehead against hers, he whispered for her to look at him, to look into his eyes as they hit their point of climax. Looking up at him, she reached up, laying her hand against his cheek, just before her head fell back a loud cry of pleasure escaped her lips. The sight, overtook him and his body crashed down into hers, releasing everything as her magic rushed through him.

Panting, Kahlan felt the tears fall down her cheeks at the thoughts that now crossed her mind. The release of her magic would have been felt throughout the palace and everyone would know that they had done. What she had done. Pushing him from her, she sat forward covering her face with her hands.

Reaching out to her, he laid his hand on her shoulder as he sat up. She didn't move. Coming closer to her, he settle himself behind her, pressing his chest against her back and wrapping his arms around her stomach as he began kissing her back. She grabbed his hands, keeping them from reaching her breasts. She didn't want him like this. She had destroyed the man she loved. His soft laugh, grabbed her attention, making her turn her head to try and see him.

"I told you that I loved you." He smiled as she turned her body to look at him.

Full of surprise, she grabbed his face, pulled it to her and kissed him. "How is this possible? We were touching when I released my magic."

"I know. I felt it, I- It was amazing."

"But you're not confessed."

He shook his head, his smile widening. "Your magic couldn't make me love you any more than I already do."

"It's not possible-"

"Maybe it is. Look at me, I'm still me. We just made love and I'm still me. Maybe it is possible, but noone has ever given it a chance."

Her eyes fell from his,sliding closed at his words. "We shouldn't have done this. Spirits, what have we done?"

"What we should have done months ago." He whispered, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against hers.

"You're married." She breathed out in heartbreak. "This was wrong."

"No, marrying Anna was wrong."

"Excuse me?" They both turned to the woman standing in the doorway. "How could you do this? You've destroyed my husband!"

Richard pulled his hands from the Confessor's body, turning towards his heart broken wife as Kahlan covered her naked body with a blanket. "It's not what you think." Richard said as he crawled off the bed, walking naked towards the other brunette.

"You just crawled, naked, out of her bed. Everyone in the city felt the release of her magic and you're saying that it's not what I think!" Pushing him out of her way, she walked to Kahlan. "How could you do this to him?After what he's done for you! He wasn't yours to take!"

Turning to look at her, Kahlan thought quickly, she had to fix this. "I didn't confess him." She said softly. "I know that doesn't mean anything, but I pushed him away-"

"No, Kahlan-" Richard tried to stop her, to keep her from what she was doing.

"He's still your husband and you both should go." Anna turned around, looking at him, making sure that the Confessor hadn't lied to her. "He's still the man you love."

Richard stared at her, confused as to why she was lying to her. They could be together now and she was pushing him, once again, into another woman's arms. "Kahlan, I-"

"Don't talk to her." Anna said angrily, picking his clothes off the floor. "Get dressed. We're going home."

He shook his head, pushing away the hand that handed him his clothes. "I don't want to go with you. I never did. I'm sorry Anna, but I never cared about you the way I care about Kahlan."

"You married me, not Kahlan." She said, forcing his clothes into his hands. "Get dressed."

"No. I married you, yes, but I don't want to make love to you. I want to make love to Kahlan. I want to feel her magic run through me again."

Anna pushed him, sending him back a few steps. "No! You don't- You didn't feel it the first time! She pushed you off of her, you're not her slave!"

"She didn't push me from her, she held me closer." He said softly, looking past his wife to the woman staring down at the sheets around her. "Kahlan, you held me to you. You held me against you the way I've always wanted you to." He could see the tears in her eyes, even as she turned her head from him. "Your magic flowed through me, touching every part of me and I never wanted it to stop."

Kahlan turned to him, the tears now falling down her cheeks. "You have to go. Everything that happened was a mistake and never should have happened."

"How can you say that?" He questioned as he pulled his arm from his wife's grasp. "It wasn't a mistake."

"You're married Richard! You're married and we just- With your wife down the hall! How can that not be a mistake?"

"Because we love each other."

Closing her eyes, Kahlan forced the words from her mouth. "You are not mine to love." She whispered. Wrapping the blanket around her, she stepped off of the bed and walked towards them both. "You should go."

"I agree." Anna said as she walked to the door.

He dressed slowly, hoping that she would change her mind. Walking to her, he cupped her cheeks in his hands. "Ask me to stay."

"I can't."

Nodding, Richard turned to Anna, who waited at the door with crossed arms. "I'm sorry, Anna, but our marriage is over."

"What?" She said in a gasp of disbelief.

"I only married you because I hoped that one day I would forget to love Kahlan and love you, but it's not possible." Turning his head back to Kahlan, he sighed. "I won't stop loving you. You're the one I want to spend my life with."

"You don't know what you're saying. You don't love her. If you did, you wouldn't have married me at all, or spent so many nights in my bed."

"I never once made love to you." H said slowly, making each word clear. "What I did with you meant nothing to me." Kahlan stared at them, her mind spinning with images of them together. "Being with Kahlan, was the greatest thing I have ever experienced."

Frustrated, Anna threw her arms up into the air. "You are my husband and you are coming home with me! Now!"

"Kahlan?" Dennee's voice echoed throughout the room as she walked in, pushing past Anna and Richard to her sister. "What have you done?" Turning towards the others, she raised her hand, pointing towards the door. "Get out." They left without question, both walking out of the room with one last glance at The Mother Confessor. "Kahlan, what did you do? You stayed in here all day so that this wouldn't happen!"

"I know." She whispered softly, her heart pounding so hard in her ears, she couldn't hear her own words. "I don't know what happened. One moment he was sitting here," She laid her hands on top of the chair that remained by the bed. "and then I kissed him."

Watching her sister stare down at the chair, Dennee stepped closer, hoping to regain her attention. "You pushed him away?"

Shaking her head, she blinked out the tears that had filled her eyes. "No. I didn't think to. I didn't want to."

"You confessed The Seeker?"

"No." She breathed out in disbelief. "I should have. He- I held him to me. I felt it surge into him, but he- It didn't work."

"I don't understand."

"Me either, but he wasn't confessed. Dennee, he was-"

"And you are sure that you were touching him?"

She was sure that she was blushing, her mind replaying their love making. "I'm sure. I was touching him and he wasn't touched by the magic." Looking to her sister, Kahlan gave her a small smile. "He said that he felt it run through him, but it couldn't make him love me any more than he already did."

Seeing the joy on her face, she took her sister's hands. "Kahlan, it's not possible for someone to be unharmed by our magic. Something must have happened. He may have found an elixir, something to protect him."

"Richard would have said something. He would have come for me as soon as he found it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Richard would never have married Anna if he knew of a way for us to be together."

With a sigh, Dennee shook her head. "Kahlan, he married another woman. You can't see him again. Not this way. The council will never allow it, not after what you've just done."

"I know. He's not mine to love."

"I didn't say that you couldn't love him, but if he can't be harmed by your magic, then maybe it's not wrong to have him."

"He's married, Dennee." Kahlan whispered.

"Yes, but you don't have to stay here. You can go away and be happy. Together."

Her words surprised her, she had never expected her sister to encourage her to do what she was suggesting. "What?"

"Go after him."

In only a second, Kahlan had pulled her sister into a hug and turned towards the door, clinging to the blanket around her. "Thank you."

Running down the hallways of The Confessor's Palace, The Mother Confessor ignored the stares of everyone around her. Her mind only on catching him before it was too late. Turning the corner, her heart stopped at the sight of him standing beside his wife.

"Richard!" She cried out loudly, bring everyone's attention to her. He turned quickly, rushing towards her as soon as he saw her face. Their lips collided the moment they were close enough, their arms tight around each other as they lost themselves. "I love you." She breathed out softly.

"I love you too, so much."

"Stay with me." She whispered softly as he pressed his forehead against hers.

"Forever." He breathed out through a wide smile.

Walking over to them, Anna grabbed Richard's arm and pulled him away from the other woman. "You're my husband, not hers."

"The Mother Confessor may have any woman she wishes." Everyone turned towards the woman's voice. "She may have your husband if she wishes and you have no right to stand in her way." Dennee stepped closer to the brunette.

"What of the man? Does he not have a choice?"

"No, but if that is what you require, we will give him the choice." Pushing Kahlan back, she stood between them, looking Richard in the eye. "Do you want to leave here with your wife?"

Richard turned around, looking at her in sadness. "No. Anna, I'm sorry, but I don't love you. You deserve someone who does." Turning back to Dennee, he shook his head. "I want to be with Kahlan."

"Very well. It is finished. Your marriage is no longer recognized." Turning to her sister, she smiled. "You may want to go back to your room and dress. The council will be wanting to speak with you." Nodding to her sister, Kahlan reached out to Richard, inviting him to take her hand. Their fingers entwined instantly, both stepping closer to the other, before walking, slowly, down the hall.

Kicking the door shut, Richard pulled her into his arms, kissing her passionately. Instantly her fingers slid into his hair, holding his head to hers as he walked her backwards across the room. The blanket fell from her body as they reached the wall, breaking their kiss for a moment, Kahlan pulled his shirt over his head. With her back against the wall, he lifted her into his arms, bringing her chest before his face and allowing his lips to devour her flesh. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him to her as she began to grind herself against him, her body begging for him.

The stone of the wall cooled her body as the heat between them threatened to burn her alive. Pressing her harder against the wall, he used it to help hold her as he moved his hands over her body, teasing her until neither could take it any longer. Reaching between them, she took the strings of his pants, pulling them loose quickly before pushing them to the floor with her legs. He moaned into her chest at the release of the pressure of his pants.

Carrying her to her bed, Richard laid her down gently, pulling back for a moment to look down at her. Her beauty made his heart stop. Reaching out to him, she pulled him onto her, wrapping her arms around him. She held his face to hers, kissing him with everything she had, her body desperate for him as it had always been. Each kiss felt like their first, filled with the passion they had within them.

With the name of their lover flowing from their lips, they held each other tightly as they gasped for air. His head rested on her chest, a smile spread across his face as her fingers ran smoothly over his back. Listening to her heart pound, he wondered what their life would be like now that they were together and if he would make her as happy as he hoped he would.

"I'm sorry, Kahlan." He said softly as his breath returned to him. "I never should have married her."

"I'm the one who told you to."

Lifting his head from her, he shook his head. "No you didn't. You said that I should find someone else to love and I- I just went back to her and I shouldn't have. Kahlan, I should have stayed here, I should have realized that my love for you was stronger than anything else and I didn't. I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't be sorry." She whispered a smile crossed her lips. "You're here now."

"I am."

Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands, noticing the tired stress and pain that covered his features. "I love you."

Kissing her quickly, he smiled. "I love you too Kahlan, so much." Pressing his forehead against hers, Richard took in a deep breath, suddenly realizing he had no idea what was going to happen to them. "What happens now?"

"What do you mean?"

"What happens with us?"

She waited a moment, thinking of what to say. "We go on. We're going to have to plead our case to the council and hope that they will not take you away from me as my punishment."

"Punishment?"

Nodding, Kahlan breathed deeply, staring up at him. " What we did, before. Richard it's against our laws for me to be with a married man when I have not claimed him as my mate."

Confused, he sat up, his knees holding himself up over her hips. "But you're The Mother Confessor, isn't the law what you say?"

She smiled up at him. "If I don't follow the laws, noone will. I must be punished."

"I'm sorry Kahlan."

She laughed, lifting herself onto her elbows. "I'm the one who kissed you remember? You just wanted to talk to me."

"No I didn't." He said honestly. "It took all of my strength not to wake you and make love to you."

"Why didn't you?" She asked softly.

"Because I was afraid that you wouldn't want me to. I thought that you hated me for marrying Anna or that you were happy with out me." He gave her a small smile. "Then you kissed me and I realized that you felt exactly like me."

"When I saw you sitting there, for a moment, I thought I was still dreaming."

"You were dreaming of me?"

"Always." She whispered as she leaned up to him, running her fingers into his hair on his neck. "We have to get dressed. If we don't go to the council, they will show us no mercy."

He nodded, kissing her quickly before crawling off of her moving to gather his clothes and dress. Grabbing the white fabric of her Mother Confessor's dress, she smiled at the small tears he had made when they made love the first time a few hours before. "I don't think they'll notice." Richard said softly as he stepped over to her. "Maybe we can have Zedd fix it?"

"There's no need. There is another in the wardrobe."

Tilting his head, a small smile crossed his lips. "How many do you have?"

"It would be best to remove those thoughts from you mind, Seeker." She said as she dressed herself. "We can't have them made as fast as they're destroyed."

Taking her hand, Richard smiled as they walked to the door. "We'll discuss this later."

"I have no doubt."

***END***


End file.
